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It looks like Google just leaked a major new feature of Android P in a blog post. The post, which recaps a security feature, contained a screenshot of the DNS settings with a navigation bar that we hadn't seen before. The explanation from the rumor mill is that this is Android's upcoming iPhone X-style gesture navigation.

The navigation bar in Google's screenshot is nothing like what you see on Android today. The blue color scheme indicates that the phone is running the Pixel theme, so the back button should be solid white. Instead, it's rendered in the old hollow style. The home button is a pill shape instead of circular. The Recent Apps button, which is normally a square, is totally missing.

After talking it out with the Android Twitter crew, 9to5Google's Stephen Hall said he's heard from sources that this is "100 percent" Android gesture navigation and that the back button is supposed to hide itself. If you wipe out the back button from this picture and call the pill-shaped home button a gesture indicator, you have something that looks exactly like the iPhone X's gesture navigation system. In Google's screenshot, a dialog box is open, so the theory is that in this (in-development, subject-to-change) build of Android, a back button pops up only when a dialog box is open and the button would normally disappear.

This isn't the first time we've seen evidence that gesture navigation is on its way. Android P features a new horizontal sliding animation when you navigate from screen-to-screen in an app, which would line up well with a swipe-to-go-back navigation gesture.

About 30 minutes after the post went up, it was updated with a new image that cropped out the navigation bar. For now, the original, uncropped image is still on Google's servers here.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

Gesture recognition works fantastic on the X, hard to blame Google for grabbing this.

The big question in my mind is how well it world work on cheaper phones with poor performance, on iOS it leans heavy on very reactive animations to provide good feedback. Seems like on a slow handset this would be a mess.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

I never found the back button very magical, it was always a crapshoot what would happen when you push it.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

I never found the back button very magical, it was always a crapshoot what would happen when you push it.

Do you have an example of crapping out? It's never failed for me as far as I can remember.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

The iPhone X or the older iPhones? The swipe back gesture is a huge improvement over previous iPhones, I can flip back and forth through apps to get back to where I was much faster than previously. I don't use Android so it's hard for me to compare.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

If you swipe right from the left edge of the screen on iOS it does the same thing. It’s easy to do, well supported across both iOS and various apps, and functionally the same as what you describe without permanently taking a portion of your screen.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

I find the swiping to be much more awkward then just pressing the button, especially if you're using a phone with a bigger screen.

I like the swipe, but the bigger issue is that there’s a discoverability issue with gestures in general. A button is obvious.

You are right, it is something you have to be shown, but only once and the feedback makes it obvious what's happening extremely well. It's not like other gestures where there are no on-sccreen controls, the handle is right there.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

The iPhone X or the older iPhones? The swipe back gesture is a huge improvement over previous iPhones, I can flip back and forth through apps to get back to where I was much faster than previously. I don't use Android so it's hard for me to compare.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

So you hit the back button and it might go to the previous page in your app, or to another app entirely? Like a hybrid between alt-tab and the back button in your browser?

I'm not sure I like that kind of magic.

I wonder if Google is going to copy the gesture but retain the old behavior or adopt the iPhone-like behavior.

You seem hellbent on wanting to assume the android back button is bad, I'm going to try one last time =)

You perform task A, then Task B. Task B takes you somewhere you didn't expect, and nothing on the screen gives you a clue as to how to "undo" your mistake. You press the back button and your mistake goes away. Simple, always works.

EDIT: Oh and you can already switch apps on android easily, there's no need to copy that.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

The Android developer still has to explicitly support back navigation in some cases, though.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

The Android developer still has to explicitly support back navigation in some cases, though.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

So you hit the back button and it might go to the previous page in your app, or to another app entirely? Like a hybrid between alt-tab and the back button in your browser?

I'm not sure I like that kind of magic.

I wonder if Google is going to copy the gesture but retain the old behavior or adopt the iPhone-like behavior.

The name is a clue. It goes "back". To a previous screen in the app, to the previous app if that launched the current one, or closes the current app if neither are applicable.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

The Android developer still has to explicitly support back navigation in some cases, though.

Gesture recognition works fantastic on the X, hard to blame Google for grabbing this.

The big question in my mind is how well it world work on cheaper phones with poor performance, on iOS it leans heavy on very reactive animations to provide good feedback. Seems like on a slow handset this would be a mess.

It works but it's somewhat poorly implemented. It was basically shoe-horned into iOS. The back gesture can be unreliable quite often and apps still display an archaic back arrow - sometimes at the top, oh wait, it's on the bottom this time, oh, maybe I need to click that 'X' in this app!

It was clearly rushed due to the removal of the Home button, which was brilliant.. a physical button that performs one navigation action and took up tons of physical space.

Who has used fingerprint scanner navigation gestures on the Pixel or another phone capable of them natively or through an app? Ergonomically it seems like an excellent idea as long as the sensor is well placed such as on the Pixel, as opposed to the Galaxy S8. On my S7 I love the Button Mapper app so I can long press the volume up and down buttons to go back or switch apps while my other hand hangs onto the subway strap. A long press is still slower than a swipe, which is why I'm looking forward to my next phone having a sensor on the back for gestures. I won't care much if it doesn't have buttons at the bottom of the screen.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

The Android developer still has to explicitly support back navigation in some cases, though.

This also applies to iOS.

I didn't say otherwise.

That's true. Since we're having a comparison festival between iOS and Android I assumed you meant to say this was an Android flaw, not a general flaw caused by bad development.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

The iPhone X or the older iPhones? The swipe back gesture is a huge improvement over previous iPhones, I can flip back and forth through apps to get back to where I was much faster than previously. I don't use Android so it's hard for me to compare.

On Android you can double tap the recent apps button to switch quickly between your two most recently used apps. The back button just goes back.

Gesture recognition works fantastic on the X, hard to blame Google for grabbing this.

The big question in my mind is how well it world work on cheaper phones with poor performance, on iOS it leans heavy on very reactive animations to provide good feedback. Seems like on a slow handset this would be a mess.

It works but it's somewhat poorly implemented. It was basically shoe-horned into iOS. The back gesture can be unreliable quite often and apps still display an archaic back arrow - sometimes at the top, oh wait, it's on the bottom this time, oh, maybe I need to click that 'X' in this app!

It was clearly rushed due to the removal of the Home button, which was brilliant.. a physical button that performs one navigation action and took up tons of physical space.

This isn't remotely like how it works on the iPhone X.

There is no back arrow built into the OS. Any back arrow in an app is in the app and this doesn't interact with it at all. The gestures each do exactly one thing when you use it and they all work very well for what they do.* Swipe side to side and you pan through apps in the stack* Swipe up to go home* Swipe up and to the side to open the app switcher * (Optionally) Swipe down to enable reachability.

Android is an absolute disaster and feels like a bunch of parts cobbled together. If Google wants to stay relevant in Mobile for the long-term they need to start over completely from scratch and put this Frankenstein to sleep.

Instead they try and merge it into ChromeOS.

Really, any OS is "a bunch of parts cobbled together" when you get extreme enough.

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

So you hit the back button and it might go to the previous page in your app, or to another app entirely? Like a hybrid between alt-tab and the back button in your browser?

I'm not sure I like that kind of magic.

I wonder if Google is going to copy the gesture but retain the old behavior or adopt the iPhone-like behavior.

You seem hellbent on wanting to assume the android back button is bad, I'm going to try one last time =)

You perform task A, then Task B. Task B takes you somewhere you didn't expect, and nothing on the screen gives you a clue as to how to "undo" your mistake. You press the back button and your mistake goes away. Simple, always works.

EDIT: Oh and you can already switch apps on android easily, there's no need to copy that.

I get what it does. I'm just not sold on it being desirable. The situation you describe isn't something I struggle with currently so I'm not sure why it would be magic.

I'm not "Hellbent" on anything and I'm not really interested in arguing about a UI feature I'm not overly familiar with.

I'm not sure you get what it does because you seem to be relating it to app switching in iOS. The back button is probably one of the things used most in Android because not only does work in the browser to go back, but it also backs out of increments in apps (e.g. click on an email and want to go back to the inbox, just press the back button).

The android back button is not about switching apps. Think of it as the back button on your browser, but for everything you do on your phone or in any apps.

On an iPhone you rely on the user interface designer to propose the next options to you, on android you have the extra option of being able to just go back regardless of whether the UI is working for your needs or not.

So you hit the back button and it might go to the previous page in your app, or to another app entirely? Like a hybrid between alt-tab and the back button in your browser?

I'm not sure I like that kind of magic.

I wonder if Google is going to copy the gesture but retain the old behavior or adopt the iPhone-like behavior.

You seem hellbent on wanting to assume the android back button is bad, I'm going to try one last time =)

You perform task A, then Task B. Task B takes you somewhere you didn't expect, and nothing on the screen gives you a clue as to how to "undo" your mistake. You press the back button and your mistake goes away. Simple, always works.

EDIT: Oh and you can already switch apps on android easily, there's no need to copy that.

I get what it does. I'm just not sold on it being desirable. The situation you describe isn't something I struggle with currently so I'm not sure why it would be magic.

I'm not "Hellbent" on anything and I'm not really interested in arguing about a UI feature I'm not overly familiar with.

I'm not sure you get what it does because you seem to be relating it to app switching in iOS. The back button is probably one of the things used most in Android because not only does work in the browser to go back, but it also backs out of increments in apps (e.g. click on an email and want to go back to the inbox, just press the back button).

I did. Then corrected myself when someone clarified my point, and even edited my top post.

Gesture recognition works fantastic on the X, hard to blame Google for grabbing this.

The big question in my mind is how well it world work on cheaper phones with poor performance, on iOS it leans heavy on very reactive animations to provide good feedback. Seems like on a slow handset this would be a mess.

It works but it's somewhat poorly implemented. It was basically shoe-horned into iOS. The back gesture can be unreliable quite often and apps still display an archaic back arrow - sometimes at the top, oh wait, it's on the bottom this time, oh, maybe I need to click that 'X' in this app!

It was clearly rushed due to the removal of the Home button, which was brilliant.. a physical button that performs one navigation action and took up tons of physical space.

This isn't remotely like how it works on the iPhone X.

There is no back arrow built into the OS. Any back arrow in an app is in the app and this doesn't interact with it at all. The gestures each do exactly one thing when you use it and they all work very well for what they do.* Swipe side to side and you pan through apps in the stack* Swipe up to go home* Swipe up and to the side to open the app switcher * (Optionally) Swipe down to enable reachability.

This is a lot of swiping and reliance on UI elements in apps to do the same things that are handled by two small buttons in Android. Sure, it's relatively well done on the iPhone X but it's still worse than Android.

This seems fine as long as there's an option to not use gesture navigation.

Yes. Gesture navigation: Do Not Want.

One of the best features Android has over iOS is the back button in the lower corner of the screen. They can try to take that away but they'll need to pry it from my cold dead hands.

You just swipe right to switch to the previous app on the iPhone X. It's right there. Apple took that convenience and stepped it up a notch.

This is not at all what the back button does, it allows you to go back one step in whatever it is you are doing. It's like magic and I can't live without it, I find the iPhone complicated to use now in comparison.

If you swipe right from the left edge of the screen on iOS it does the same thing. It’s easy to do, well supported across both iOS and various apps, and functionally the same as what you describe without permanently taking a portion of your screen.

even if it does do the same thing (and I really don't think it does), it isn't really eating up screen space that would get used otherwise. Apple always had a button on the bottom, you could just as easily put a second button next to the middle button and *bam* you have a back button.

It was a design choice and nothing more, because they wanted a more "clean" look by not having buttons unless it was *absolutely necessary*. I'm not a fan of that design choice because it removes functionality... but in any case... you aren't reclaiming anything by taking this away on Android.

Gesture recognition works fantastic on the X, hard to blame Google for grabbing this.

The big question in my mind is how well it world work on cheaper phones with poor performance, on iOS it leans heavy on very reactive animations to provide good feedback. Seems like on a slow handset this would be a mess.

It works but it's somewhat poorly implemented. It was basically shoe-horned into iOS. The back gesture can be unreliable quite often and apps still display an archaic back arrow - sometimes at the top, oh wait, it's on the bottom this time, oh, maybe I need to click that 'X' in this app!

It was clearly rushed due to the removal of the Home button, which was brilliant.. a physical button that performs one navigation action and took up tons of physical space.

Well, apart from going to the start screen, for a long time the home button has also worked for Touch ID, Siri, the app switcher, and the reachability feature.